avril

it's been a while. 

life has been its usual mad amazing whirlwind. 

i've had classes at the institut every monday to friday and i really do feel like i've gotten much better. i'm at the point with french where i don't have trouble communicating ever but i tend to beat myself up over messing up or forgetting small details- but every day i feel more and more confident and competent in french. whilst part of that improvement is due to class, a large part of it is coming simply from being immersed in french life, doing everything from talking over the many complicated eurail ticket options with the very patient people working at the gare, to bantering with the employees at the hole-in-the-wall sri lankan restaurant where they know by now to start making nutella sandwiches on naan as soon as we walk in on any given weekend night. i find myself absently talking to myself in french instead of english half the time. it can be frustrating when i make mistakes or blank on a word, but i'm getting there. i'm getting there. i'm getting there. 

outside of class, i've been hanging out with friends and trying to make the most of my very limited remaining time here! 

a couple weekends ago it was sunny so a few of us spent the afternoon lounging around on an island in the middle of the loire. 

some other highlights of the past couple of weeks: our uzbekistani housemates gifted us fancy patterned bread. 

i turned 19! it was a wonderful day spent with wonderful people. even spending most of the day in class wasn't too bad since marit and i started the morning off on the right foot by grabbing chai lattes and muffins at our favourite overpriced coffeeshop.

courtesy of our friend loes, who has a car, and the institut, for giving us wednesday afternoons free, we've instituted the new tradition of château wednesdays. two weeks ago, it was château d'azay le rideau.

last wednesday we went to chenonceau, which was every bit as storybook-perfect as i had imagined it would be. 

today we went to amboise, but i haven't yet uploaded those photos unfortunately. it was beautiful, though, and the town was charming. 

the main excitement in my life recently, however, was last weekend's trip to dublin! it was incredible and i still can't quite believe it actually happened. i can't think of any better way to have spent my birthday weekend. that'll be another post, for sure. stay tuned. 

xo

m

p.s. OUR EURAIL PASSES ARRIVED! 

and in a 48-hour planning blitz, marit and tamar and i have now successfully booked every single train and hostel for our two weeks of backpacking! now comes the fun part, aka planning how to fit everything we want to do/see in each place into the short time we have there. suggestions on (extremely low-budget) things to do in munich, florence, nice, marseille, or barcelona are more than welcome!